What is the essential difference between the maritime ban of the Ming Dynasty and the closed-door policy of the Qing Dynasty?

"Closed door" refers to the policy of strictly restricting and prohibiting foreign exchanges and trade in the Qing Dynasty. There are many reasons for this policy:

1. The short-sightedness and ignorance of the rulers of the Qing Dynasty are the direct reasons for "closing the country";

2. The feudal self-sufficient natural economy is relatively stable and has strong resistance to foreign products, which is the economic root of the closed door;

3. The needs of the Qing Dynasty. In order to prevent the contact between Chinese and foreign anti-Qing forces and the infiltration of western colonialism, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty adopted a closed-door policy.

Although the closed-door policy has a certain self-defense function against the invasion of western colonists in a certain period of time, it is a passive and backward policy after all. The closed-door policy can't weaken the strength of western capitalist countries, but it hinders their own development, which makes China lose the initiative in foreign trade, and the rulers are ignorant and arrogant, which cuts off the scientific and technological exchanges between China and foreign countries, hinders the development of productive forces and social progress, widens the gap between China and the West, and creates a passive situation in modern China.

The maritime ban in Ming Dynasty began in the early Ming Dynasty and ended in Qin Long. The main purpose of the maritime ban is to curb the pirate invasion along the southeast coast. The maritime trade system during the period of the maritime ban was mainly carried out through tributes and the government, which inhibited China's overseas trade to some extent, but it was not as destructive and stifling as in the Qing Dynasty, which was also the biggest difference between the maritime bans in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

At the beginning of Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of Ming Dynasty, put an end to the outflow of precious metals for the need of preventing Japan politically and the consideration of mercantilism economically. In foreign trade, except for some countries or tribes, all other private overseas trade is prohibited. After Yongle, with the consolidation of China's coastal defense and social stability, the ban was gradually relaxed. In the middle of Ming Dynasty, the activities of Japanese pirates were rampant. In the first year of Jiajing (1522), Xia Yan believed that the Japanese pirates started from street ships, and suggested cracking down on street ships and enforcing the maritime ban. The imperial court accepted the suggestion, blocked the coastal ports, destroyed the ships at sea, and cut off the maritime traffic to cut off the Japanese supply. All coastal officials and banned people will be sentenced to death according to law. With the destruction of the enemy by the Ming army, in the early years of Qin Long, in order to collect business tax, increase fiscal revenue, the court opened the maritime ban and "allowed to traffic things". After the opening of the maritime ban, commodity agriculture and handicrafts in the southeast coastal areas have developed, providing favorable conditions for the growth of capitalism. Scientific management measures have also been taken to open the sea ban, which is no longer the disorderly and primitive form in the past. This is manifested in that every businessman who goes to sea must obtain the approval of Tongzhi Coastal Defence, get a "letter of introduction ticket" issued by the government, trade in the designated area, and return to Hong Kong within the prescribed time limit. There are also certain restrictions on countries and regions that go to trade, and Japan is one of the countries that prohibit trade. In addition, considering the protection of military technology and civilian science and technology, the varieties of exported goods are also restricted, and any disclosure of China's military and civilian technology is prohibited. Although this regulation restricts overseas trade in some aspects, scientific management has greatly promoted the normal development of maritime trade. The late Ming Dynasty was a great maritime era in the history of the world. Under the guidance of this scientific policy, China merchant ships and merchants once seized the sea power in Asia from the Dutch "sea coachman". At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the coastal defense of the Ming Dynasty gradually recovered its former glory with the strength of trade, once defeated the maritime powers such as Portugal and the Netherlands, destroyed the most competitive Japanese navy in East Asia at that time in Korea, and regained some sea power in East Asia and South Asia. Even western ships going to East Asia for trade must pay customs duties to Zheng Zhilong, the general of Fujian Navy.

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